OWS and state apparatus.

I have mentioned on this blog that there were a hundred or so Iraq veterans in uniform marching in an OWS demonstration in New York City. We also had the young veteran in the Bay Area on the OWS demo who has been badly beaten and injured. We also have Bradley Manning in solitary confinement for allegedly allowing us to see the capitalists secret doings. I have referred to these as signs of the beginnings of small cracks in the state apparatus.

I now see that in the OWS demonstrations in NYC a former police commander has been taking part in his full uniform. He was arrested on November 17 th and charged. The commander's name is Ray Lewis and after retiring having done 24 years in the cops in the Philadelphia he became involved in what he calls the struggle for "social justice."

I believe that the state apparatus of capitalism cannot be taken hold of whole and used to establish socialism. History shows this is not possible. The working class must move and establish its own democratic organs of power and build upon these a new society. However we have to be careful. While the capitalist state apparatus can never be the organ to establish socialism in the process of the struggle for socialism this state apparatus can be affected and in split. Sections of it even can be won over to the side of the revolution.

The ranks of the Russian army come to mind, the Portuguese army including many officers in 1974, the ranks, especially the African American ranks, of the US military in the last years of the Vietnam war, there have been police strikes and the refusal by police to evict tenants in this country. These are all examples of where the capitalist state can be split and weakened as the working class movement moves forward.

The vicious repressive measures of the increasingly militarised US and world police forces and state apparatuses around the world have to be opposed. But as we do we have to add to our willingness to physically defend ourselves and combat the capitalist state our willingness also to raise demands and reach out to the elements in the capitalist state who themselves are coming under the attacks of the capitalist offensive. This can weaken the capitalist state and strengthen the forces of the working class as it struggles for a new society, this can change the balance of forces in our favor. It would be unwise and immature for the movement not to recognize the possibilities that exist.

Sean.